Gareth A Davies has been a sports journalist for The Daily Telegraph since 1993. He is Boxing and MMA Correspondent. Has been intrigued by fight and combat sports from a young age. Personal sporting passions are rugby, cricket, and martial arts. Also covers the Paralympic Games. Hates getting his hair cut. Follow on Twitter @GarethADaviesDT

Heavyweight David Haye goes back to his roots in Senegal

The camera follows the Bermondsey boxer as he spends an afternoon with the Senegalese President, shows his support at the SOS Children’s Orphanage, and finally, a sombre day reflecting on the fate of his ancestors who were rounded up at the Goree Island slave house on the coast of Senegal. Here, ships would take the captives on a brutal three-month journey across the Atlantic to America or the West Indies where only one in six Africans would survive.

"Only the strongest survived this trip," Haye said. "They bred them like racehorses – super-slaves – and here I am, World Heavyweight Champion of the World beating up the other guys. I guess you can call it payback.

“Maybe that could be part of the reason why I'm big, strong, fast and healthy," he added. "Maybe something as tragic as this has led to me being the way I am today."

Stopping off at the local boxing ring, the Hayemaker also meets some local boxers.

Video courtesy of VBS.TV.

Haye also mixes seamlessly with many other sportspeople. He once spent a night out with Usain Bolt in London and ended up having a race through Mayfair streets with Mickey Rourke.

Rio Ferdinand admits that if he were not a footballer he might have been a boxer. The Manchester United and England captain, interviewed by David Haye, revealed: “I’d be like [Floyd] Mayweather. I’d be quite defensive and slick. I’d try and bide my time, counter-punch and then go in for the kill when the right time arrives. I see you [David Haye] as someone like Wayne Rooney. You go all-out to crash and bang. You attack from round one and won’t stop until you win. I’d be more calculated.”

Ferdinand revealed that he boxed as a teenager. “One of my mates had a pair of old boxing gloves and we’d all go and have a mess around tear-up after school. We would be doing that or getting together and playing football. Football was something that was easy to arrange, because there were so many of us and all we needed was a ball.”

Ferdinand, whose favourite fighters include Mike Tyson, Marvin Hagler, Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank, Michael Watson and Steve Collins – will be ringside tomorrow night. Haye and Ferdinand, who have been friends for some time, were both born and raised in South London, and their fathers were karate and kung-fu instructors involved in martial arts.

In the 198-page Hayemaker Magazine, published to accompany the WBA title defence in Manchester, Haye, who conceived the magazine, also interviewed Danny Cipriani and Linford Christie.